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Laurasia-class
The Laurasia-class Frigate is the mainline combat ship of the ZAFT organization and would take part in every single space combat operation of ZAFT. It would be the first of the 'Mobile Warship' Style Ships which would be something every single new warship afterward would attempt to beat. It was the progenitor of a whole new way of space combat. Technology & Combat Characteristics The Laurasia-class Frigate is ZAFT's first frontline warship and is developed entirely by the engineers at the Martius Colony Shipyards. At first, these ships were to be direct defense ships only and never really supposed to move outside of Lagrange Five and the Coordinator Homeland. However, this all changed when the Bloody Valentine War began on February 14, CE70 and these ships were thrown into the fires of war. They would be the thin green line between the newly formed Earth Alliance and its massive fleets. All in all the Laurasia-class is a simple warship and a bit under-armed for a complete warship, but this is a product its development. While the weapons of the ship were on par with Earth Alliance warships, they were still somewhat lighter than their Alliance counterparts. The Laurasia true real strength laid in the ship's hanger and the six mobile suits it is able to carry into battle. When combined with its mobile suits a single Laurasia-class was said to be on par with a single Earth Alliance Nelson-class Cruiser plus escorts. Therefore when you combined these ships together in larger taskforces and fleets you could theoretically take on a complete Earth Alliance Orbital Fleet. However, as the war continued to drag on and the Earth Alliance started to devise better ways to counter ZAFT superiority during Fleet Battles the Laurasia was left behind. This was rightly shown during the Battle of Nova were around forty percent of the attacking ZAFT fleet where destroyed during the course of the battle. Therefore ZAFT would start looking into furthering their fleet with new ship designs which would lead to the Nazca-class High-Speed Destroyer and Luna-class Space Escort. Even then the Laurasia would continue to see service well into the final days of the war alongside newer ZAFT ships. Even with new Nazca-class and Luna-class ships introduced to the ZAFT Space Forces the Laurasia-class would see a few different upgrades being developed for the aging Frigate. This would include the Type-0E Expanded Hangar Pod which allowed the Laurasia-class to carry eight mobile suits instead of six, and the Laurasia Kai-class Refit Program. The former being introduced in response to the Earth Alliance Mobile Suit Carrier Upgrade Plan that would see Earth Alliance ships able to replace their mobile armors with new mobile suits. While the later was to make Laurasia-class ships remain viable in the ZAFT Fleet and would upgrade the weapons of the ship along with adding a handful of new weapons. One interesting feature of the class would be the addition of the modular Type-0 Series Pod that allowed ships of the class to easily switch out its mission when required. These pods had the unique capability to be dropped from the ship while in orbit where it could then independently enter Earth's atmosphere. The basic Type-0A Pod was the ship's main mobile suit hangar, sporting the needed equipment and cargo space to support six mobile suits. Until the development of the Caravan-class Orbital Dropship it was Type-0A Pods that allowed ZAFT to drop forces onto Earth. However, after the failure of Operation Sphinx and the First Battle of Victoria where the majority of the dropped hangar pods would be destroyed in the air before they could land to disembark their forces. Another popular pod choice would be the large Type-0C Heavy Cargo Pod which allowed ZAFT to be able to drop a large amount of cargo onto the planet when it was required. It was thanks to these pods that allowed for the rapid construction of Copernicus Base. While the Caravan-class Orbital Dropship sported smaller Cargo Pods that could be dropped these larger pods allowed ZAFT to rapidly resupply planetside bases or units when it was required. A second known pod type would be the Type-0D which couldn't be dropped itself onto the planet it did carry equipment that could be pyshically droped instead. By wars end and afterward, the Laurasia-class continued to remain in service with ZAFT. While it was by far outclassed by the Nazca-class Destroyer and the far newer Babylon-class Cruiser the remaining ships of the class remain in ZAFT due to general adaptability of the design. Even then this didn't stop ZAFT from going forward with plans to retire the ships from service which became necessary due to the Litner Naval Limitations included in Junius Seven Treaty. Even then while a few ships of the class would be sold off or retired quietly the vast majority of the remaining ships of the class would instead be refitted into Hercules-class Modular Armed Transports. This was partly to get around the Treaty Limitations due being quite easy to refit these ships back into regular Laurasia-class Frigates when required. Overall, the Laurasia-class Combat Frigate was notable as the first 'Mobile Warship' ever developed and while it quickly became outdated it still remained a viable threat to enemy warships. Armaments *'XM22 937mm Duel High Energy Beam Cannons' :The main anti-ship weapon of the Laurasia and while it is a bit underpowered compared to other beam cannon designs out there its still able to contend with damaging attacking enemy ships. *'M6A9 450mm Dual-Barrel Railgun ' :The main secondary weapon of the ship and is mainly to counter enemy anti-beam fields and newly introduced anti-beam coating during combat along with the single barrel version of the weapon. *'M6A3 450mm Single-Barrel Railgun' :The single-barrel version of the M6A9 and are unique among the ship's other weapons due to them being in ball turrets along the front of the ship. These weapons are mainly used for close-in work against approaching enemy warships, but can also be used in conjunction with the M6A9 Turret to bombard distant enemy ships. *'M7A3 125mm Duel Cannons' :The last of the ship's cannons are mainly to back up the ship's CIWS network just in case they needed something with a heavier punch. Later in the war, these cannons were quite useful in countering attacking enemy mobile suits as they tried to attack the ship. *'M3A1 58mm CIWS Cannons' :These small weapons are spread across the ship to help prevent enemy missile attacks and approaching enemy mobile armors. While a bit underpowered these weapons are still quite capable of easily destroying missiles and damaging mobile armors. However, one major weakness of these weapons was the poor placement of two of these weapons making them useless in general combat. *'SML9 4-Cell VLS Launcher ' :One of the only missile weapons on the ship and is really not all that useful for anti-ship combat. Due to this are often mainly used as a defense weapon in conjunction with the ships CIWS guns firing counter missiles or lightweight anti-air missiles. Equipment & System Features Notable Ships ;*ZS Laurasia (MWS-FFC01) :The first ship of the entire class and by far one of the most famous ships of the entire ZAFT Space Forces. It is also known to be quite a lucky ship due to surviving through several notable battles including some of the most chaotic battles of the entire war. It managed to survive all the way to the end of the war and would be one of the few ZAFT ships still fighting when the Ceasefire Order went out ending the Second Battle of Jachin Due. It also escorted the ZS Voltaire to Junius Seven for the final signing of the Treaty of Junius Seven. After this, the ship would be one of the handful ships of the class to be fully retired from service and would later be chosen to serve as a mobile ship museum for the Bloody Valentine War. ;*ZS Colombia (MWS-FFC09) :The ninth ship of the class and becomes notable for being one of the first ZAFT ships to be destroyed during the Bloody Valentine War. It was destroyed during the Battle of Yggdrasil when it was being used to physically shield the docked evacuation shuttles from the approaching Earth Alliance Forces. For this act of bravery, the ship and its crew would become quite well known to the Earth Sphere at large. ;*ZS Galvani (MWS-FFC19) :The first ship of Commander Rau Le Creuset and his team which they use during the Endymion Campaign which would make the Commander so famous. It would be heavily damaged during the later Battle of Nova and would be scrapped instead of being repaired. The Commander, the remaining crew of the Galvani, and his team would later be transferred to the new Nazca-class Destroyer Vesalius. Variants & Subclasses ;*''Hercules''-class Modular Armed Transport :A refit/variant that turns some of the older Laurasia-class ships into a transport for the PLANTS and ZAFT after the end of the war. It was a way for ZAFT to follow the tenets of the Treaty of Junius Seven but at the same time, it was so they could still keep some of their ships active when they would be needed. Since it wasn't that difficult to convert a Hercules back into a Laurasia. ;*''Laurasia Kai''-class Combat Frigate :A new variant/refit of the original Laurasia-class that permanently adds a new Type-0E Expanded Hanger Pod to the ship which increases the ship's mobile suit capacity to eight machines and the addition of new weapons, including XM25 beam cannons replacing the older XM22 cannons and the addition of two more M7A3 Guns to support the CIWS. These ships are basically both new builds and a refit that was started around the last months of the war. The remaining ships of these class would remain in service after the war while the older Laurasia-class would be refitted into Hercules-class. Gallery Laurasia Front.jpg|Laurasia Class Frigate in Dock Laurasia Bridge.jpg|Bridge of Laurasia Class Frigate Laurasia-capsule.jpg|Type-0A Hanger Pod, plus Modular Attachment Point of Laurasia-class 640px-LaurasiaClass1.png|Fleet of Laurasia Frigates protecting GENESIS Super-Laser Trivia *Basically a dedicated background profile for the ubiquitous Laurasia-class Frigates of ZAFT. *This profile is used for not only a single story for all of my Gundam SEED stories therefore outside of a few instances this profile doesn't go into the war history of the ship. *The Hercules-class variant of this design was created by myself due to what I have read about the different nations trying different things to get around the different Naval Treaties in real life. Category:Warships Category:Frigate Category:ZAFT Ships